the snow for a long time before I found the strength to get to my feet. Back in Seattle, a woman was waiting for me. She needed me. My brothers needed us.
Even in the depths of nothingness, there was that. There was Annabel and Grim and Saga.
The trek back to Seattle was faster than the journey out, but it felt infinitely longer.
I kept expecting Arni to land on my shoulder and chatter some rudeness at me before he nipped my earlobe, kept peering to the sky in hopes that this was all just a horrible nightmare that I would wake up from any minute.
All that met me was solitude and snow.
Shortly after dawn, the numbness broke and grief took its place. I wished it’d been anger, but I wasn’t so lucky.
Tears trickled silently down my face and into my beard, making me thankful for my loneliness. If anyone had seen one of Jotunheim’s greatest warriors sobbing like a babe, my days would have been numbered. Weakness was the precursor to death, and right then I felt weaker than I’d ever thought possible.
The only thing that gave me the strength to keep walking was knowing that a few blocks away, Annabel was waiting for me.
Eighteen
Annabel
“Modi!”
I cried out my alpha’s name as he penetrated my weeping sex once more, the agonizing new bond hooked behind my ribs flooding with pleasure, numbing the pain.
I’d lost count of how many times he’d mounted me since he'd put his claim on me, the times in between a hazy fog of hormonal madness and misery. We hadn’t spoken—hadn’t needed to. I felt his regret like an ice pick between my ribs whenever he wasn’t buried inside of me, only the pleasure he found there overriding his anguish.
My heat refused to break, and as horrible as it was, I was grateful, because once it was over, there would be nothing to ease the torment.
Modi grunted behind me, his hands finding their now-familiar place on my hips and yanking me back onto his thick dick.
At least this part didn’t hurt any longer. He’d fucked me so many times my pussy swallowed him without protest. Even the knottings felt sort of good now.
I mewled, digging my fingers into the ripped mattress, closing my eyes as red-hot pleasure crawled through my pelvis and down my thighs. “Harder!”
“What in the ever-loving fuck!”
A roar that didn’t belong to my lover ripped through my brain, seemingly coming from everywhere around me.
I opened my eyes, squeaking in shock when the hands on my hips and the dick inside me were ripped away, leaving me empty and cold as another roar shook the apartment.
Dazedly I looked over my shoulder, naked fear gripping my lungs at the sight.
Bjarni was there, only he looked nothing like the gentle giant I’d come to know.
His face was twisted in fury, red and almost unrecognizable, teeth bared as he stood over Modi where he’d flung him to the floor.
“My omega! You claimed my omega! You, who think she is so beneath you! You, who looked down on me for wanting her!”
He didn’t wait for a reply. In the blink of an eye he’d lifted his foot and brought it down onto Modi’s skull with a sickening crack.
I shrieked as agony flared in my chest, sharp and unbearable.
“Modi! Modi, Modi, no! Please, no!” I scrambled to get off the bed, all thoughts of heat and regret gone in that horrible, too-long moment when my mate lay still on the dirty floor.
“He’s gonna live.” Bjarni’s voice was still a growl. He shoved Modi’s limp body with a foot, and my new mate groaned softly but didn’t stir otherwise.
Relief flooded my mind, anger taking the place of panic.
I bared my teeth at the man who’d hurt my mate, who’d stopped him from sating my desperate need. “You’ll pay for that!”
My own voice was barely recognizable, hoarse from screaming and raw with primal fury. I grasped for the well of my magic, my reserves filled from uncounted mountings, determined to blast this prick into next week for what he’d done to Modi.
Only Bjarni had other ideas.
He narrowed his eyes in response to my bared teeth, and before I’d managed to summon my power, he crossed the space between us, grabbed me by the scruff of the neck, and shook until I lost my grasp on my magic.
“This is what you want, Annabel?” he snarled. “You want to fight me?”
“You hurt him!” I growled back, though whatever receptors he was pressing into had my body